Review: Hale Centre Theatre's SISTER ACT is Rousing

SISTER ACT at Hale Centre Theatre in West Valley is a 1970s disco dream, an uplifting story of self-improvement and love, and a rousing good time.

SISTER ACT (music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Glenn Slater, book by Bill and Cheri Steinkellner with additional material by Douglas Carter Beane) is based on the favorite 1992 film. When aspiring singer Deloris Van Cartier witnesses a crime, she must go into hiding at an abbey before she can testify against its perpetrators. While there, she teaches the convent choir to sing and adds secular pizazz to the sacred numbers, mortifying the Mother Superior but delighting the masses.

The all-new score is catchy, and the book is funny. The story has been changed a great deal from the film, with this iteration set in 1970s Philadelphia and the male characters given much more to do. In the process, the character of Deloris and her relationship with her fellow nuns have sadly been given short shrift. A combination of the show itself and this production of it causes the first act to falter a bit, but the second act really shines.

Mack plays Deloris (double cast with Raven Flowers) with great humor and approachability. She is a natural born performer and feels right in the role. Her vocals are sometimes inconsistent, largely due to a difficulty projecting the notes that sit in her lower register. However, when she belts in a range that's more comfortable, her voice is electric. No more so than the exhilarating 11 o'clock number "Fabulous Baby (Reprise)," which leads into the inward-searching solo "Sister Act."

Broadway performer Elizabeth Hansen is excellent as the curmudgeonly Mother Superior (double cast with Betsy West). Her acting and singing choices are deliberately fashioned with the character in mind, and her second-act solo "Haven't Got a Prayer" is funny, moving, and impeccably performed.

Another showstopper comes from Bre Welch as Sister Mary Robert (double cast with Kelly Combs) as she performs her touching, stirring second-act solo "The Life I Never Led." Her crystalline vocals awe and inspire and arise organically from the character she has developed.

Two additional cast members that deserve special mention for their enjoyable performances are Adam Millington as the endearing Eddie Souther (double cast with Keith Evans) and Bailee Brinkerhoff Morris as the amusing Sister Mary Patrick (double cast with Zöe Wilde).

Although various members of the cast broke character multiple times during the reviewed performance, and some are closer to a professional level than others, for the most part the cast does a nice job with the material. The nun chorus is especially strong in both singing and dancing.

The choreography by director Dave Tinney is utterly fantastic and filled with disco zest. Whether it's a small group of men preening across the stage or a gaggle of sequin-clad nuns strutting their stuff, the dancing is always infectious and joyful.

Set designer Kacey Udy and lighting designer Adam Flitton have found a balanced approach to exhibiting both the wonderfully tacky 1970s nightclub excess and the traditional, restrained beauty of the stone cathedral with its statues and stained glass.

Costume designer Barbara Abbott and hair/makeup designer Trisha Ison also tap into the time and place with zeal. Despite the limitation that many of the characters must be in black nun habits for the majority of the action, they've filled the rest of the show to the brim with everything from realistic period street clothing to the glittering costumes of the fabulous finale.

SISTER ACT plays through December 3, 2016. For tickets, call the box office at 801-984-9000 or visit www.halecentretheatre.org.

Photo Credit: L-R Mack (Deloris Van Cartier), Elizabeth Hansen (Mother Superior), and Bre Welch (Sister Mary Robert)

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